Chip's Challenge scoring: Difference between revisions

In the original [[Chip's Challenge for Atari Lynx]], when a level is completed, the victory message and four scoring values are superimposed over the level, on the bottom half of the screen. However, the total score is not saved, and is reset to 0 upon returning to the title screen or a power failure, and the Atari Lynx ran on battery power. As of 2021, no one is known to have ever completed Chip's Challenge 1 in a single setting within the Lynx's best-case 5 hours of battery life, so it's highly unlikely that anyone ever saw their total score over a complete playthrough of the game.

In the [[Steam ruleset]] and in [[Chip's Challenge 2]], when a level is completed, the victory message and the score are overlaid over the bottom half of the grid, similar to the original Atari Lynx version. If the score is an improvement over the previous score, a new window first appears to congratulate the player, and display how many extra points were scored. This window can be dismisssed by clicking the ''Ok'' button at the bottom.

Scoring in the ZX Spectrum port of Chip's Challenge is extremely glitchy. For most levels, the level bonus value does not use the usual formula, instead using a seemlingly random number which will be very confusing to attentive players.

* -.9 (no .X equivalent) = 5.5 moves after the last tick, but the time limit has not decremented. As technically the clock should have ticked at this point, Chip must have used either [[boosting]] or a special instance of a [[spring step]]. (Note that waiting [1/2] before making a ''voluntary'' move into the exit, such that a hypothetical next move would be a spring step, will not create a -.9 time and simply be .0/-.8.) The three specific causes, with examples, are: a force floor override ([[Flame Boy]]), a boost which places Chip ''directly'' into the exit ([[Shrinking]], [[Bounce]], [[Oorto Geld II]]), and Chip making a boost or a spring step onto a sliding space and continuing to slide until he reaches the exit, and the timer was at .0 one space from the exit ([[I Slide]] and [[Just Enough]] respectively). This is rare, with these being the only six examples in official levels. Because of the continuing clock software in MS, when Chip closes the exit window and moves to the next level, the timer will be down one second from its original setting.